2. music
  3. 137751-115029

Sound stage height??

I notice that with most recordings I get a full height sound stage, as though I'm sitting right in front of the band. With other music it's more like I'm sitting above the band...........vocals seem to come from lower than my listening height............It's an odd phenomenon. I can only attribute it to how the music was recorded. It can even vary with different songs on the same disc......................My sound stage is typically wall to wall and realistically deep behind the speakers.............but sometimes it's almost like the vocalist is sitting on the floor in front of the band...........Anybody else experience this??................Marantz SA14s1 CDP...........Bryston amps...........Vandersteen 3A speakers...........room is well treated acoustically.
shadowcat2016
erik_squires
16,900 posts
 
Recordings matter. :) 

I will say that imaging suffers in the direction of poor treatment. If you have bare floors, may be worth throwing some blankets and pillows on the floor between and behind the speakers as experiments. Also, what happens if you tilt the speakers up or lower your listening position? 

Bet,

E
shadowcat2016 OP
132 posts
 
I do have hard wood floors in here, just an area rug between me and the speakers...............might try something else, maybe thicker rug or a few more panels on the ceiling...............it's only 7'8", kinda low.............I can also adjust the tilt on the speakers...........Listening to Michael Jackson right now, good recording, but on some songs he's only two feet tall........on others everything is at the proper height..........weird.........I get this on some % of discs, but not all........even stranger if it's room acoustics and/or treatment. I'd expect it to be fairly uniform if that were the case, but certainly worth playing with...............thanks
erik_squires
16,900 posts
 
well, I don't know if my suggestions will "fix" your imaging and recording problems, but I do think you'll find some things you like about the experiment. :) And yeah, ceilings matter. 
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,328 posts
 

When your system starts to tell you how the engineer positioned the mikes and what kind of mix he applied to the feed, you know you're getting there with refining your system.

Listening to classical piano music a lot, I notice this constantly.  What perspective did the engineer choose.  To the side, to the front or the back.  Are the treble and bass ends of the keyboard panned to left and right speakers, or blended.  How distant is the piano.  Etc. etc.

shadowcat2016 OP
132 posts
 
Thanks folks...............Yes, I have found that as I took more care with speaker setup and addressed the worst of the room demons, that it's become quite easy to tell differences in recordings...................that's not always a GOOD thing..............Some music that I used to enjoy listening to, now doesn't get played as much.......cuz it don't sound so good. LOL.........On the + side is that when it's good, it's REALLY good. .........Life in audiophile land I guess..........I do plan to add some additional room treatment and perhaps adjusting the tilt of the speakers and toe in a bit might improve things..............Not really complaining about my "sound", quite happy with that overall, but as you say, the better the setup gets, the more I "hear" things that weren't obvious before.
More to discover